May not get a choice of either if flying Ryanair.
And stay in the old east Berlin. Much more character.
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Bring US dollars to pay for it. A lot of cards donât seem to work over here.
Also, there is a 200,000 pesos ATM transaction limit per day here. About AUS$400.
First time back since 1995. Itâs a lot cleaner these days and the country is slowly progressing.
If you want to go to the soccer you must buy tickets over the internet. No ticket sales at gate.
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I can get there in J for less ;- )
But this is a great opportunity for people to get a state-sponsored tour of China. See China for yourself instead of what the MSM wants you to see.
Kathmandu first evening:
- Irish bar (with lack of proper Guiness; not even by widget-ed can)
- rooftop bar
- live music bar (they were very good)
- night club
Thank fark Iâm not on the 5am wake up for the Everest-viewing flight⌠Iâm more farked up than Fark Carlton.
P.S. Fark Carlton.
P.P.S. It took me a loooong time to type this, hopefully itâs now error-free. Fark Carlton.
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The tour isnât for me but for people who havenât been there before or wary of travelling there it gets their foot in the door. I would love to see stats on how many people return to China to tour independently after doing one of these cheap tours. I would guess itâs pretty high. For people on a budget $999 for 2 people with a tour, 7 nights accommodation, return flights plus 1 internal flight is amazing. Return flights alone are in the $400-600pp region normally.
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Yes I know. When I wrote âyouâ I was not referring to you, Aceman, but to the generic reader.
Are those tours like the zero baht tours the chinese take to Thailand, where the tour itself is cheap but then they are taken to all pre-arranged overpriced stores/attractions and pressured to purchase.
No.
You will visit a couple of places like a jade factory or pearl outlet but not pressured in anyway. The Chinese government just want tourists so subsidise tours heavily
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Yes, noticed that about cards last March when in Chile. Yet in Argentina no problem anywhere.
Arrived in Jerusalem yesterday and appropriately the heavens opened, torrential freezing rain all day. Drier and a bit warmer today and had a very pleasant time getting lost in the streets of the old city. Mystical and evocative and very commercial, if thatâs possible.
Camera shy
Dome of the Rock and Wailing Wall and cop cars galore
The compact crowded section to the right behind the barrier is the womenâs portion of the Western Wall. I imagine male prayers need more space to spread out, or something?
Sacred hand selfies on the Via Dolorosa.
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Praying to a pile of stones. Humans are quite sad really.
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If youâre coming to Israel donât miss Masada, so incredible not even the logistics of a group tour could spoil it. Our first organised day tour of the hol clocked in at around 10 hours, one and half hours of which was mind boggling which made up for the boring lectures (at least I could turn off the hearing aids and duck off regularly), lots of waiting around in queues and hotel pickups and drop offs and a forced visit to a Dead Sea Cosmetics store. We could and should have taken the bus from Jerusalem and just gone to Masada but we were sucked into the Dead Sea thing which turned out to be a dead loss, a beach located in what appeared to be an industrial waste site full of expensive cafes and people in togs and covered in mud. Very few were easy on the eye, unlike Masada. The drive to and from was great though, spectacularly stark landscape.
Back in the Old City today and stood in line for over an hour to enter Temple Mount and view the Dome of the Rock up close. Worth every aching muscle, up there with the Taj Mahal as a visual eyeful.
And another in the girls and guns series. They are literally everywhere. Weird feeling to have my passport checked on a bus by a teenager while the barrel of her dangling semi automatic was pointing at my kneecap.
Off to the West Bank tomorrow and then back into Jordan. Our travel insurance is void for the day apparently.
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Some West Bank pics. Seemed quiet enough to us but we later learned 2 Palestinians were shot and killed after what the Israeli police described as a car ramming in the Northern part and they expect more trouble in the lead up to the Israeli elections.
A night in Banksyâs hotel will set you back nearly a grand Iâm told but the proceeds go to the locals and he has helped turn the worldâs ugliest wall into a working canvas.
An aesthetically and politically ugly bus pic of one of the many Israeli settlements in the West Bank, nearly all of them perched on hills and heavily fenced.
Despite the troubles there are plenty of tourists, most of them religious, and they nearly all come for this underground chamber in a gorgeous orthodox church where they often wait 5 hours or more to get in. Weâre not religious so fortunately we got lucky and our wait was only 30 minutes. Something about the original site of a birth in a barn.
PS Just crossed back into Jordan via the Southern border crossing at Eilat/Aqaba and can confirm that Trip Advisor is more reliable than the official sites because you do get a visa on arrival for free providing you stay 3 nights, even if itâs your second crossing, as in our case.
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Ok. Sounds dubious, just need to know if its a no go. Scoot flights to Europe are very cheap. What do people think? Are Scoot actually an airline? (Enquiring, but waiting to be warned offâŚ)
Scoot are Singapore Airlineâs LCC in the same way that Jetstar is to Qantas.
Their aircraft are well maintained and are a mostly new fleet and operate to the same high safety standards so no problem there.
They use new 787 Dreamlinerâs for long haul which are excellent and their seats by all reports are quite comfortable even if a touch smaller than on a full service airline. Being a LCC there is also no food, beverages or entertainment provided unless you pay and the same goes for baggage. I know a couple of people who have used them recently and reckon itâs a better experience than flying economy with Qantas or even Cathay. Just take an iPad and load up some movies.
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So Melbourne, Tokyo, Vancouver, New York, Orlando, London, Lisbon, Dubai, Melbourne.
Some will be flights, others train.
Too much for one trip?
How long?
RTW air tickets?
Thinking 6 / 8 weeks. Havenât looked too deeply into pricing yet.
Some legs may book locally as well as opposed to one ticket encompassing it all.